1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to sound pickup devices for picking up low-pitch sounds produced by striking percussion instruments, in particular, bass drums, with drumsticks or beaters.
This application claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-122107, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a drum set (or a drum kit) comprises various percussion instruments such as a bass drum, a snare drum, a tom-tom, and/or cymbals, all of which are arranged around a player who gives a rhythm performance using these percussion instruments. Specifically, high-pitch sounds in a high register are produced using ‘metal’ percussion instruments such as cymbals; intermediate-pitch sounds in an intermediate register are produced using the snare drum and tom-tom; and low-pitch sounds in a low register are produce exclusively using the bass drum, which plays an important role for imparting grand impressions to a musical tune being played. In particular, low-pitch sounds (or low-register sounds) are very important in various types of musical tunes because they form the basis for the melody and rhythm in the musical performance. For this reason, various attempts have been made to improve sound quality and to increase volume with respect to low-pitch sounds. In the case of the bass drum, a drumhead is stretched under tension over an opening of a large-diameter shell so as to decrease resonance frequencies and to increase volume. However, in consideration of the musical performance being performed on a stage, the exterior size and shape of the bass drum should be adequately adjusted in dimensions to coordinate with other instruments.
Generally speaking, human listeners have a keen sense of hearing with respect to intermediate-pitch sounds, whereas they have a relatively low sense of hearing with respect to high-pitch sounds and low-pitch sounds compared with intermediate-pitch sounds; in particular, they may have difficulties in hearing low-pitch sounds. For this reason, various methods have been developed to intentionally enhance the production of the sound of the bass drum. The most classical method provides so-called dual performance in which double bass drums of the same specification and standard are arranged opposite to each other, wherein a primary bass drum is played to produce sound, with which a secondary bass drum resonates. However, such dual performance is disadvantageous in that it requires a relatively large space for installation of double bass drums and it therefore degrades appearance, and it does not always demonstrate superior effects in spite of a relatively large sum invested therein.
A generally known method that is currently a leading technique and is designed as shown in FIG. 4 in which a microphone P is arranged in proximity to a drumhead of a bass drum B, which is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. Sho 59-11579, for example. That is, the microphone P picks up the sound produced by the bass drum B so as to convert it into electric signals, which are amplified by an amplifier A to activate a speaker system S to reproduce the sound.
In the aforementioned system of FIG. 4, the vibration of the drumhead of the bass drum B is transmitted to a diaphragm of the microphone P having a very small diameter, by which the sound of the bass drum B is converted into electric signals. Hence, it is very difficult to accurately pick up low-pitch sounds having specific characteristics of the bass drum B. Normally, the bass drum B instantaneously produces low-pitch sound which is a massive displacement accompanied wind pressure, whereas the microphone P merely picks up basic components of sound, and it is therefore very difficult to pick up the low-pitch sounds having massive displacement and force. When the low-pitch sound picked up by the microphone is reproduced using an electric circuit, an unnatural sound differing from the original sound may be emphasized so that the reproduced sound may greatly differ from the original sound of the bass drum.